Does Excellence Really Matter?

Excellence Vs. Mediocrity:

What are the “Real life Consequences” between having an average employee, Bartender, Server, Manager, Hostess, Chef, etc. and one that purposely strives for excellence?

Are all my training manuals, blogs, books, videos, seminars etc. about helping people take steps towards excellence? To increase sales for the restaurant & bar and making more money as a bartender or server? Of course they are.

I want to get people thinking about how they can do things in a different and more productive way. But what they’re really about, and what I want to start a discussion on, is Excellence and the question of, does excellence really matter? Why?

Because, Excellence MATTERS!

“Whatever It Is That You Do, You Are Making A Stand, Either For Excellence or For Mediocrity”– Brandon Webb Navy SEAL Chief & Sniper School Head Instructor

Chief Webb also says,“… commitment, honed over time into a fabric of Excellence. I’ve seen poor leadership and exceptional leadership. I have seen training that was simply good, training that was great, and training that was so transcendendingly amazing it blew my mind. I’ve seen the difference that it makes.”

My goals are to not only teach the craft and profession of general service giving and bartending, but hopefully to inspire already good bartenders & servers to be GREAT! To continually strive for excellence in all that they do.

Excellence: Choosing Your Trainers & Role Models

With the huge number and high quality of bartending and service industry experts that have contributed to our training materials, you and your entire staff of bartenders have many amazing role models to choose from. Who would you like to learn or continue your learning from?

A bartender in your bar that may be a little jaded, cuts corners and that does things because…well, “I never really thought about it, we’ve just always done things that way.” Or, from some very successful bartending individuals that are truly passionate about improving themselves and those around them? Some real pioneers, trend setters and innovators?

Excellence: All Bartenders & Servers Are Definitely Not Created Equal

When you choose the service industry as a career, like any other job or career, you will find that all servers are not created equal. There is a very wide range of people and their approaches out there. Some people are passionate about being the best and some just do it as a means to live and kind of “coast” by their shifts and careers.

This isn’t a very politically correct thing to say, but there are a lot of servers etc. out there that just plain suck! 🙂 That’s right I said it. I want to be clear… I’m not saying this because I think I am so great. I do not believe that I’m god’s gift to bartending or the service industry by any stretch of the imagination… Oh, the mistakes I’ve made! 🙂 I tell you about some of them in this series.

Excellence: No One Is Perfect And We ALL Make Mistakes

Yes, over time and because of a lot of help & training, I developed into a pretty good bartender and service giver and I have done very well. The reason that I think so many servers are not very good, really boils down to one thing: They Don’t Care Enough, To Think About How To Do Their Job Better.

Well I do care, and so should you! I have spent an enormous amount of time over my 30 years in the bar industry thinking about how to achieve excellence. be an exceptional service giver and bartender. On top of that, I actually took action. Because I began experimenting with different ways to do things, say things, and handle common situations, I learned and improved.

Excellence: Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan

I have created a game plan that helped me increase my odds of success and it’s all here for you. Why make the effort?… Effort? Aw man, that sounds like work… Hehe, sometimes it is, especially in the beginning when you’re learning something new or just changing how you have always done something.

This isn’t a get-rich-in-30-days program. You are not “entitled” to make huge money.

You have to figure out a way to earn it. But I promise you, if you follow my suggestions, it will be well worth your while. In money made, pure enjoyment of your time behind the bar, opportunities and pride of a job well done. I’ve followed this strategy and that has helped me succeed at a very high level, which means;

The Benefits Of Excellence:

Jobs & Opportunities: I was offered the best bartending job in my city,Shifts: I was given the best bar shiftsSales: I comnsistantly had really high salesTips: I made fantastic amounts of TipsFun: I had tons of fun being a bartender, every night I “worked”

If you do it right, and strive for excellence, I think bartending is the best job in the world. Being a table server is a lot of fun too, but I only did it occasionally as part of my bartending duties. The point is that most jobs in our industry are a lot of fun and get even more fun when aim for excellence and you’re really good at it.

People would ask me how long I worked there and I’d say with a genuine smile,“I don’t work here, I just play here until they tell me I have to go home :).”(More Continued below)

Excellence: Why Did I Personally Make the Effort?

I was really scared of being broke and that fueled me to do whatever I had to do so that I could be successful and self-supportive.

The truth is that I started off with nothing. My awesome mom and the GM of our company, Karen Young, raised me by herself since I was five years old. She ROCKS!

My dad, wasn’t in our lives and stopped paying child support. Classic case of deadbeat dad. We never owned anything except a beat-up old station wagon. We lived paycheck to paycheck. It was really tough on my mom and I remember how stressed and scared she was. So when I grew up, I promised myself that I would do whatever it took to be worry-free from having little to no money.

I wanted to have freedom from the stresses my mom had faced raising a child as a single parent with a deadbeat dad. How did I do it? I failed miserably.

Excellence And Failure:

Baseball didn’t work out because I didn’t apply a strong work ethic early enough. I learned it the hard way. Failure at what I loved. Ouch!It was the best thing that could have happened to me. I decided that I was never going to fail that badly again! If I was going to change, I decided I would really focus on being great at whatever I chose to do and I chose a bartending school.

Working for minimum wage depressed me so I wanted to make the most amount of money in the shortest amount of time and have fun doing it. If I was going to live the life free of worries, I wanted to be exceptional! Because of my circumstances growing up, I figured that if I was truly one of the best at whatever I did, then I wouldn’t have to worry about finding a good job and keeping it. It was my survival instinct kicking in.

Excellence And Opportunity:

I wanted to be such good all-around bartender, that when I applied for a bartending job, and maybe got a tryout, the bar manager would be thinking, “Who do I have to let go, to create space for this guy?” That was my motivation and my plan and it worked too 🙂

This young kid also wanted to experience all of what the world and this great journey called life had to offer.

I quickly learned that I really wanted to learn how to surf and to surf often. The only problem was that there were no waves within 5 hours of where I lived, so I needed to make more money to pay for travel expenses to get to the places where I could pursue this dream and passion. So I did. I’m a regular guy who decided early that if I wanted to live a cool life and have freedom from financial worries, I had to make the most of every opportunity. I had to excel.

Excellence: After Failure

After baseball didn’t work out, I chose Bartending. I put extra special efforts into becoming an extra-ordinary bartender and service giver. Other than having my car rear ended by a cement truck that was towing a pick-up truck…. That’s slowed be down a bit…but got me writing more… I’ve lived a very interesting and fortunate life.

Why am I telling you all this? It All happened because I was a bartender. A Service Giver. All because of the extra efforts towards excellence. I put daily thought and actions into being a GREAT service giver and I was way more successful because of it. Most importantly, I’m just a regular person like you who made a conscious decision to try harder to make the most of whatever skills, talents and opportunities that I have.

Excellence: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It Too!

I want to help you… – Become the best bartender or server that you can be. – Get the best bartender or server job for you. – Be given the best shifts. – Have more fun at whatever job you have. – Create a big list of regulars that come just to see you. – HUGELY Increase your nightly sales.

And yes, I really want you to make bigger tips and even smaller tips more often! That’s why I created all my training programs…videos, seminars, books, websites and all the other study guides and tests that are available, with products from 50 other trainers, In our Huge Online Training Library.So please approach everything you read with an open mind and you will be amazed at how quickly you will start making more tips and having more fun than you already are. Thanks.

Excellence: Do You Want To Make More Money?

Focus on improving, in any way you can, because Excellence Matters! Do You Want To Make More Money in Tips Than You Ever Have Before? If nothing changes, then nothing changes.

Our #1 training goal is to have you foster a better overall guest experience by creating a friendly and caring connection with every one of your guests. – We want you to really take ownership and responsibility for your contribution to their experience. – Don’t be afraid to experiment, take chances, make mistakes, learn how to deal with your mistakes. – Keep your mind open to new & crazy ideas and add your own twist to them.

– Become the bartender and person that you want to be. – Don’t just follow the lead from a burned out co-worker who doesn’t really care anymore. – Don’t be afraid to care enough to think about how to be better. At anything and everything you do.

“Your Time Is Limited, So Don’t Waste It Living Someone Else’s Life. Don’t Be Trapped By Dogma— Which Is Living With The Results Of Other People’s Thinking. Don’t Let The Noise Of Others’ Opinions Drown Out Your Own Inner Voice. And Most Important, Have The Courage To Follow Your Heart And Intuition. They Somehow Already Know What You Truly Want To Become. Everything Else Is Secondary.”– Steve Jobs